Hi, while the 3D scene looks promising and I’m sure it could have taken a lot of effort to create, it also hinders the project. I think it was probably rejected due to mediocre execution of the 3D scene and uninspired design and animation of the “inside book” contents.
With 3D it either needs to look near perfect or better don’t do it at all. Since it can be challenging to get all the different aspects of it right. Now once were on the table it looks nice, but till we get there you can see how poor the table model and how it interacts with light looks. Then the lighting of the book is weird, and also the flipping pages animation seems to just “rush” as if screaming “i dont know what the hell im doing so im just gonna randomly somehow flip through and hope for the best lol”. Instead of looking elegantly animated with a few pages turning gently and cinematically. Also you can see the pages “low polygons”… You could have easely increased the polygon count for a nicer look.
The sparkly thing flying around doesnt fit this whole look good either, seems just slapped on. Could be too bright, or could do with it not being blended in stylistically. Wether it means by color, or not matching effects.
The designs inside the book look outdated, and like they were added as an afterthought to your amazing 3D scene.
I have created a similar project myself 4 years ago, you can see how I tacled the inside book part: Diary Animation for a Museum - YouTube In my opinion my approach works better, and if you had put more effort - yours could have looked much better as well.
But still my project was created 4 years ago using some template, all the stuff there is outdated by nowadays standards and trends.
So overall I would say either get the 3D scene perfect and heavily improove other aspects of the inside book, modernize it with current trendy designs, fully zoom in into the book etc, or just abandon this and similar project ideas, atleast until you can nail the 3D part. Else it’s too much hassle with too many places to screw up.